The World of Glue – Elmer’s Teaching Toolkit Review and Giveaway

Elmer’s Glue has put together a great cross-curricular investigation of adhesives for teachers to share with their students. There are so many different kinds of glues and they can be obtained in so many different ways. If you create a free homeschool teacher account on their site, you will have access to this and many other tools to teach science, as well as a host of other activities to students of all ages.

Elmer’s World of Glue Toolkit for Teachers offers a cross-curricular set of activities for K-5 students

Elmer’s Glue sent me this toolkit for free and I was asked to write an honest review and not necessarily a positive one. The kit is called “The World of Glue” and it came with:

a great book, Too Much Glue, by Jason Lefevre – this picture book introduces us to a boy who enjoys glue a bit too much, to the point where he gets dressed up in a suit made of glue;

a teacher’s manual, which contains five activities and four extension activities, plus handouts and student activity pages;

three bottles of glue: a natural one (which is not runny and quickly became my favorite one – I found out it is made out of natural ingredients, American-grown corn being the main one), school glue (first introduced on the market in 1967 – the formula stuck!), and glitter glue (my daughter’s favorite).

After reading them the book, we chose the activity called “Make a Mini Glue Suit.” The kids got to create their own glue suits, reminiscent of what happened to the main character of Too Much Glue (affiliate link).

Reading helped me ease into the world of science. Reading to the kids, I like. Doing science experiments, getting all gluey and gooey, not so much. But I survived to tell the fun story.

Each of them worked on a glue suit by pouring as much glue as they wanted on wax paper, which I had taped over their handout. The only rule was that they had to stay within the lines of the outline on the handout. Next, it was time to decorate with pom-poms and stickers. Lastly, we had to wait. Not three minutes, but three days. We are talking a lot of glue here.

They were very proud of their glue suits and they enjoy seeing them on a shelf in the play area. The other activities involve testing different formulas for glue and we plan on working on them next year. By then, the kids will get older and words like polymer, cohesion and adhesion will be easier to pronounce.

School glue pours and natural glue spreads like a paste.

We finished by reading the story of Elmer, the mascot of this company. The story starts way back in 1857 when Gail Borden started Borden Company. At the time, they produced dairy, ice cream, pastries and pasta. By the early 1900s, the Borden Company found out they could make glue out of casein, a milk protein. Their first glue product, Casco Glue, was introduced in 1932. After experimenting some more, in 1947, they made a perfect glue recipe out of synthetic materials – Elmer’s Glue-All.

Glue suits made and decorated by my children, according to the book “Too Much Glue”

Elsie the cow was the mascot of the Borden Company for many years, but American families knew her husband, Elmer, quite well, too. By 1940, when Borden needed a new mascot at the World’s Fair, Elmer replaced his wife and the rest is history.

Today, Elmer’s picture is on more than 150 types of glue bottles and other products. Children and adults alike recognize him.

To enter the giveaway, you must be an email subscriber to Homeschool Ways (see sign up form on the right hand column, under the FREE ebook). You have until April 10, 2014. April 15 Update: Denisa from Canada won this.

Get some glue out and craft something. Your homeschool will benefit from a few giggles and sticky fingers. I think. I know mine did.